


they could do literally anything else

by sugarby



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarby/pseuds/sugarby
Summary: It doesn't mean much, maybe, that there are a number of things they can do and not know what to do. That’s the beauty of it, they have a choice. They canchoose.





	they could do literally anything else

**Author's Note:**

> I've recently played the game (3x for the platinum achievement) while it's been on sale and I really like the prologue scene. I liked how that one Alex's message (which I remember leaving) reached another, and that they were all gonna get pizza and hang at Ren's instead, so I'm going with that.

It’s seven o’clock in the evening and when they ought to be making their way to the ferry—the last one of the evening—they've little to do but gather and wait outside Funnie's Family Market. What's  _funny_  is it calls itself a 'market' but is actually the size of a convenience store, something small and way out near gas stations as opposed to large and bustling with shoppers. The store's name is in bright neon like an ambitious yet underrated celebrity, and its reputation could easily progress thanks to Ren's love for its cold, sweet slushy drink he currently has in hand. But for tonight, it's the place Ren wants alcohol to be purchased from...when his sister decides to show up!

What a night to kick-start the warm welcome for Jonas. They don't have a surprise party where around ten to thirty people are waiting to jump-scare him; Jonas' existence wasn't even known until recently anyway.

Ren still wants to inaugurate him in to his and Alex's circle. Their world of badly timed jokes, sarcasm, and casual anecdotes about questionable things being done. He wants to get a feel of who Jonas is, what makes him tick, before the guy's properly settled in—if he finds he's able to properly settle in a new town, in a new family—with Alex. So, sitting cross-legged on the almost empty parking lot pavement, he leans back on a palm, keeps the other hand curled around his slushy, and eyes Jonas up, down.

Jonas reclines against a blue and alone car behind, "Can I help you?  _Ren_ , is it?"

Ren's lips stretch to supposedly form a friendly smile, but the enthusiasm backing it stretches it a bit too far and makes him appear mad. Or plotting. "So you're Alex's new step-brother. Hello, step-brother Jonas. How's that, by the way?"

"Yeah, hi." Jonas briefly glances over to his new step-sister for any kind of hint at all as to where this is leading. "How's what...?" He squints at him, "Is the concept of remarrying incomprehensible to you?"

Ren snorts. "Whoa, Jonas. If that's even your name—"

"It is."

"I know how it works technically. What I'm asking is—"

"His dad married my mom. The end." Alex blurbs, but Jonas disagrees. It can't be the end when their new lives together have just begun.

Ren nods, asks Jonas, "Expecting anything?"

"Like?"

"Dark family secrets. Questionable habits. Uncomfortable situations. 'Cause we've—Alex and I—seen each other naked and it was in a non-sexual way. We were kids."

Jonas really would've preferred to forgo the mental image automatically trying to invent itself in his head. "And you're sharing this with me because...?"

"Imagine if it happens to you. You'd be scarred for  _life_."

"What exactly does  _that_  mean?" Alex knows it would be mortifying— _of course_  it'll be and for the  _both_  of them, should that unfortunate situation ever happen. It's how Ren's making it sound as if seeing her bare was so unappealing that he feels obligated to warn others. Like she's a cold to be defended against; a horror trip where therapy is the only aftercare.

"It'd be worse for him since he's your new step-brother and you're gonna live with the guy. Right? Jonas, Pal?  _I swear_  I'm not a weirdo or anything like that."

Jonas says, "I'm still on the fence about that one,  _Pal_."

"I've made this awkward, haven't I?"

"All on your own." Alex says, "Congrats."

"Hey, if Allie was here, buying us the goods, then I'd be chilled and  _not_  bringing up weird stuff!" He isn't passing blame, he's making the fact of her absence known. And it's true. If his older sister were here by now, doing the one job she's been tasked with as an owed favor, then they'd all be set; they'd be on their way to the ferry and sailing off to the island, meeting up with friends and having a, hopefully, good time. He thinks  _whatever_ , waving a hand dismissively over Allie as a likely lost cause. "We'll just...Alex, tune in to your radio. If we hear people, we leave without her. If we hear music...we still leave."

" _No_ , Ren." Alex takes her radio out from her jacket pocket; it holds more warmth than usual most days since it belonged to Michael once upon a time. Wearing his jacket is a comfort. A way to hold on to him if seeping through good memories sometimes brings up the sadder ones. "Let's give her a couple more minutes." She turns the radio dial left and right nonchalantly, just trying for anything besides indecipherable chatter and buzzing static. In the background she hears Jonas question why its being spotlighted, what the reason is behind bringing it along. Ren doesn't provide an answer, afraid to spoil to dampen expectations, but hints at cool, hair-raising stuff likely to take place.

The buzzing comes back all of a sudden and they jolt. 'Weird' they unanimously think, but it becomes weirder as a very familiar voice enters, speaking directly to them:

_ "...Alex, D-Don't....Don't come to Edwards Island...s-s-sssstay home. Ssss-stay safe...." _

Alex thinks she can't turn her radio off quickly enough but her fingers have scrambled to do it.

Ren looks between the two of them, completely lost, "...So..."

"Alex?" Jonas calls, uncertain. But it can't not be her, can it? That's not possible. "That's a weird way to haze me in."

"That wasn't me..." Alex tells them, tells  _herself_  as well because in the moment she listened she forgot who she was and thought that it was her. But only for a moment—a breath, a blink, a heartbeat. And it was like being somewhere else and here at the same time. "It can't have been, I'd..." she scoffs, it's silly she she has to try and justify what's clearly implausible, "I'd remember saying something so cryptic. I'd remember sending  _myself_  a message! And besides, we've been to that island loads of times and there's nothing to warn anyone about."

"It's okay, Alex, if this is some joke—"

"Ren, no, it's not!"

Jonas asks, "Wait, so...really? You have  _no clue_  about—"

" _Please_  pull that beanie up from over your ears and  _listen_! _No_ , Jonas. Okay?"

Jonas, with a faint grudge against her harsh attack on how he fashions his head-wear, raises the beanie and folds the front to go behind his ears. "Alright, I believe you."

Ren laughs, "You—wait,  _you do_?"

"I trust Alex."

Alex appreciates that, "Thank you, Jonas."

Ren holds his hands up in defence, "Hey, I'm not saying I don't trust or believe you, Alex. You have to admit, though, that was an uncanny voice."

"You can say that again."

"Okay. That was an uncanny voice."

"Oh,  _brother_." Alex rolls her eyes, irritated, but laughs. Ren can always do that to her. "Hey, imagine we do go. You think the island could ever be a spooky death trap or...I dunno, be some cause for concern at all?"

Jonas hasn't been in town long enough but a secluded island is the ideal location for such things, sci-fi movies and documentaries reporting on the supernatural tend to say, he answers with, "Government project." he says in a heartbeat, which lifts the brows of the other and two because it lets them know he's let this thought  _soak_. "So, I've heard from guys around town that there's an old, decommissioned building on the island—a school, I think. But what if, say, there were people still there, doing things."  
  
"Ahh, you're a conspiracy theorist." Ren says.  
  
" _Or_  I'm right."  
  
"Okay, correction, you're  _paranoid_."  
  
"Hey, I'm not...we don't know what's really—this is all  _hypothetical_."

“Come on, Jonas." Alex says, not buying in to the possibility. "Maggie Adler still lives there, she’d have told the town by now—”

“Actually, Alex," Ren interrupts. "Nona told me that Maggie died three days ago."

" _What_?!"

"It's a shame but we all gotta go some time."

“Poor Maggie Adler..." Alex may not have known the woman to a close degree but she was like a town memorial or legend that everyone knew of.

Jonas says, “Still, my theory could hold true.”

“Just to be clear, I wasn’t judging you earlier.” Ren clarifies.

"Yeah, he's not the type." Alex informs Jonas. "That's more Clarissa's style."

"Oh. Yeah. Don't let her hear your theory when she gets here."  
  
"What, she's coming?!"  
  
"Did I say that out loud? Look, don't—it doesn't even matter, we're not going anymore. Right? I'm assuming that after Jonas' government conspiracy belief and your voice-copy practically telling us it'd be suicide if we do. I'll text Nona, she'll tell Clarissa, and things'll be good. Okay? Calm down."

"I  _am_  calm!"

Jonas points a finger, "You're shouting."

"Shut up!"

Ren thumbs a short but explanatory text to Nona, knowing she'll pass it on to Clarissa (if she isn't reading over her shoulder), about how his sister failed to show up, how Jonas seems alright, and that a creepy, Alex voice-clone basically told them not to go. He pockets his phone after and pushes up from the ground, his now nearly finished slushy still a survivor of the long, curved night. "Okay, plan B. Alfredo's pizza and gaming."

"Sounds good," says Jonas.

"I'm sold." Alex says.

They leave behind the brightness of Funnies to start walking together, almost in sync, out of the parking lot and on route to, what Ren swears is, the best pizza place ever before they get to his house.

Ren takes a long slurp of his slushy, releases the straw with an equally long, satisfied sigh. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, "Alright, okay, let's play a game. We each get to ask a question and for every turn you pass, you automatically have to do a dare."  
  
"That’s truth or dare." Alex says.  
  
"No, no, no. This, guys, is the Tell The Truth Because The Dare Might Be Scarier Than Whatever You're Hiding game."  
  
"I can't see that ever catching on." Jonas says.  
  
"You think every game was green-lit from the get-go?"  
  
"They weren't delayed because their titles sucked, it was—"  
  
"Anyway, Jonas, tell us. Why'd you get sent down?"  
  
" _Ren_." Alex warns.

"It's fine, Alex." Jonas tells Alex just before she can yell 'idiot!' at Ren and remind him she's not a pet that needs looking after. Jonas figured earlier this question would come up. He was anticipating it anxiously, not excitedly. People like to talk in this town and so a few rumors of his delinquency have drifted around, doing him no favors whatsoever as the new kid. Ironically, that's why Ren was so enthusiastic about tonight. To make him feel welcome and maybe make friends with his friends, but now look. From what Jonas can tell already, Ren's a guy who has some insatiable urge to know everything. "I didn't get _sent down_ , first of all. It was Juvie. And the reason I went is 'cause I felt like beating up on someone. So I did."

"Why'd you feel—"

"That's  _all_  I'm sharing."

Ren obviously wants to know more, it's scrawled across his blank face—the expression of someone in the middle of something before being ripped right out of it: a film or book, an alternate timeline. "So whether or not you go on a spree of beatings—that could include my best friend, your new sister, Alex—wagers on the mood of an adolescent who's already had kind of a rough time?"

Jonas glances to Alex, wondering how she befriended Ren. In a way, how Ren's laid it out makes it seem like Jonas will always be a trigger away from snapping again until he's twenty-something. What he's keeping to himself is the reason, which is that his mom was ill at the time and someone—Timmy Finster—threw something at him. Maybe they didn't meant to or it was a joke but he was too emotional at the time to care and just...yeah, he snapped. He shouldn't have and he's not a good guy, supposedly, but he'd like to be, so he tried. "No, Alex is safe. She's not the type I'd go for."

" _Oh_ ," Alex smirks. "You have a type? Ren's your type?"

"I'm flattered." Ren's smile starts turning in to a cheeky grin.

"Stop it, both of you. And I'm not gonna go on a  _spree_  of beatings."

"That's good. But am I still your type?"  
  
"Okay, changing the topic.” Jonas starts walking a bit faster but he isn't trying to get away from them, just hurry the journey along. Maybe they'll have less to say if they're short of breath. "Walk me through what was gonna happen tonight.”  
  
"Like I said, I didn't want to ruin it for you. Didn't want to set the bar so high and disappoint you but, more or less, we'd drink and hang and drink some more. Then Alex’s radio would maybe pick up some nifty shit.”  
  
"That seems pretty bland. ‘Cause if we were going to do just that, we could’ve gone anywhere to do it. In fact, we could've done literally anything else." It doesn't mean much, maybe, that there are a number of things they can do and not know what to do. That’s the beauty of it, they have a choice. They can  _choose_. When they're young, the world is their oyster—so  _people say_. It's a time in in life meant to instill a belief of endless potential within, endless possibilities of places to go, people to see— _to be_. But on that night that perhaps shall never come to loop again and again and again, all options were limited. Choices were already made if not strongly influenced by the body of a dear friend and their life literally hanging in the  _unbalance_.  
  
"And we are.” Ren slurps the last of his slushy extra loud to make the point. Then he beams at Jonas, "Welcome to the pack, step-brother Jonas."  
  
"We're not _wolves_." Alex's eyes roll again, and again there's a smile on her face. She has a good feeling about tonight that's much better than before. She smiles at the boys—her boy who are the kind of friends Michael wanted her to make.  
  
Jonas smiles back at her. 

Ren grins, opens his mouth and inhales deeply.

On cue, three wolf-like howls are sent to carry loudly in to the starry night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!~ ❤ ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ 


End file.
